‘Scissorhands’ commercial scores big for grad during Super Bowl LV

Super Bowl commercials are talked about for days after the game, but one Flyer will be talking about the Cadillac ad for years to come. It's a commercial Jason LaFlore ’07 created and that was seen by the nearly 100 million viewers who tuned into Super Bowl LV Feb. 7.

The Cadillac commercial showcased a new hands-free driving feature using a twist on a classic film. “ScissorHandsFree” stars Timothée Chalamet as Edgar Scissorhands, son of Edward from the 1990 Tim Burton movie Edward Scissorhands. Winona Ryder reprises her role as Kim Boggs, Edward’s love interest and now Edgar’s mother. Chalamet dons the iconic scissors-for-hands look as he stumbles through his life unable to do tasks like catching a football or driving a car — until the Cadillac Lyric.

LaFlore said he and Matt Turnier, his fellow assistant creative director at the advertising agency Leo Burnett Chicago, were approached for the project in November. 

“During one of our concepting sessions [Turnier] mentioned the idea of this Super Cruise [hands-free driving] feature being so great that even Edward Scissorhands could drive this new car,” LaFlore said. “We knew it was a good idea because it proved pretty easy to come up with builds for the idea.”

One of those expanded ideas was casting Chalamet for the commercial. LaFlore thought he would be perfect for Edgar, since he has a similar look and style to the actor who played Edward, Johnny Depp. LaFlore noticed fans on Twitter and Reddit also made the comparison. 

After coming up with the story and potential casting, LaFlore and Turnier received approval by Cadillac to bring it to life. As the art director, LaFlore worked closely with departments to come up with the wardrobe, props and set design. They filmed the ad in less than a week. Because only the production crew, director and talent could be on set in Los Angeles, LaFlore and the client watched remotely through the video platform Zoom to communicate feedback. They used the rest of the month of January to add special effects and work on editing and sound design.

“ScissorHandsFree” was LaFlore’s second Super Bowl spot, having created a commercial for Michelob Ultra starring Jimmy Fallon and John Cena in 2020.

He said this time around was much more of a time crunch, but he was happy that he and his partner got to make another ad that the client loves as much as they do.

“Making a Super Bowl ad had been my main objective since I decided I wanted to get into advertising eight years ago,” he said. “So finally making it happen, and validating my decision to get into this industry, was a dream come true.”

Before finding his calling in advertising, LaFlore graduated from the University of Dayton with a degree in communication management and worked in sales and management. He said he is looking forward to making his next big commercial, but he is also taking time to appreciate his work and achievements.

“There’s nothing like seeing your parents be proud of you and having your friends celebrate your work like it was their own,” he said. “It’s also just cool to finally see how the world receives the work you put so much time and effort into.”